Study: Why People Don’t Call Premium Rate Numbers

PhonePayPlus, in its 2010 research, polled 5001 people about why or why they don’t use premium rate numbers. The numbers are interesting and give 900 number entrepreneurs some insight on what they should be doing to get more consumers involved in calling premium rate numbers.

LACK OF INTEREST: Why most don’t call 900 numbers.

The single biggest reason cited as to why consumers don’t call premium rate 900 number is that they don’t find the services interesting enough to call. In fact, 76.6% of all consumers that don’t use premium rate numbers said this was the reason. Among those aged 11 – 19, however, only 47.7% said the services were not interesting so perhaps this is a good single for the premium rate industry of the future. No doubt that innovation would be a great boon to the 900 number industry and entice some of those previously not interested in the services to give them a try.

Interestingly, trust of services was not a major reason why people don’t use premium rate numbers. 14.4% of non-users say the don’t trust paying in this way.

One other major reason for not using such services is a perceived lack of clarity of pricing for services billed by premium rate numbers. 45.1% said they typically were not certain as to the eventual cost of such services. 71.1% said that this uncertainty had stopped them from using such services. This further enforces the reason to put the price in the advertisement and not try to hide it. Perhaps another way to promote 900 numbers is to say how long an average call will last if it is billed on a per minute basis.